Among the treasure troves of recently released WikiLeaks cables, we find one whose significance has bypassed Swedish media. In short: every law proposal, every ordinance, and every governmental report hostile to the net, youth, and civil liberties here in Sweden in recent years have been commissioned by the US government and industry interests.

I can understand that the significance has been missed, because it takes a whole lot of knowledge in this domain to recognize the topics discussed. When you do, however, you realize that the cable lists orders for the Swedish Government to implement a series of measures that significantly weakens Sweden’s competitive advantage in the IT field against the US. We had concluded this was the case, but had believed things had come from a large number of different sources. That was wrong. It was all coordinated, and the Swedish Government had received a checklist to tick off. The Government is described in the cables as “fully on board”.

Since 2006, the Pirate Party has claimed that traffic data retention (trafikdatalagring), the expansion of police powers (polismetodutredningen), the law proposal that attempted to introduce Three Strikes (Renforsutredningen), the political trial against and persecution of The Pirate Bay, the new rights for the copyright industry to get subscriber data from ISPs (Ipred) — a power that even the Police don’t have — and the general wiretapping law (FRA-lagen) all have been part of a greater whole, a whole controlled by American interests. It has sounded quite a bit like Conspiracies ’R’ Us. Nutjobby. We have said that the American government is pushing for a systematic dismantlement of civil liberties in Europe and elsewhere to not risk the dominance of American industry interests, in particular in the area of copyright and patent monopolies.

But all of a sudden, there it was, in black on white. It takes the description so far that the civil servants in the Justice Department, people I have named and criticized, have been on the American Embassy and received instructions.

This will become sort of a longish article, as I intend to outline all the hard evidence in detail, but for those who want the executive summary, it is this: The Pirate Party was right on every detail. The hunt for ordinary Joes who share music and movies with one another has been behind the largest dismantlement of civil liberties in modern history, and American interests have been behind every part of it.

At the middle of this, we find the US cable Stockholm 09-141, recommending Sweden to not be blacklisted by the US on the so-called Special 301 list, and outlines why. The Special 301 is a list that the United States compiles every year that names and shames countries that haven’t been friendly enough to American industries. A majority of the world’s population is on the list, Canada and Spain among them. It’s quite nice company to be in, actually.

Since the 1980s, the US has aggressively threatened trade sanctions against countries who don’t give American companies sufficiently large competitive advantages — this is described in detail in the book Information Feudalism about the origins of the TRIPs agreement and WTO, for those interested in gory details. In practice, it works like this: industry associations in the US go to the Trade Representatives, who go to the myriad offices dealing with Foreign Policy, who go to the embassies, who talk to national governments (including the Swedish one) and demand changes to national law to benefit American corporations.

This sounds like fiction, right? But here are the documents. This document comes from the copyright industry’s trade association IIPA, mainly consisting of record and movie companies. They have listed six demands on the Swedish Government, which stand to find in the linked document:

Adopt the copyright law amendments on injunctive relief against ISPs and a “right of information” to permit rights holders to obtain the identity of suspected infringers from ISPs in civil cases

Commence a national criminal enforcement campaign to target source piracy and large scale Internet pirates

Ensure that rights holders may pursue the new civil remedies easily and quickly

Take an active role fostering ISP-rights holder discussions to effectively prevent protected content from being distributed without authorization over the Internet

Now, these steps are written in copyright industry legalese. Some key words that sound harmless are cause for alarm once you recognize their meaning. Translated into ordinary language, this says:

Adopt “Three Strikes” making it possible to disconnect prople from the internet without a trial (“injunctive relief“), and implement the IPRED directive in a way that the copyright industry can get internet subscriber identities behind IP addresses (which was not mandatory, my note).

Prosecute to the fullest extent the owners of The Pirate Bay. (This doesn’t really need translation, except that it’s very noteworthy that the executive branch is ordered to interfere with the work of the judicial one, which is illegal in Sweden too.)

Transfer scarce police resources from investigating real crimes and devote them to safeguarding American monopolistic interests against ordinary citizens.

Take large-scale initiatives against people sharing music, movies and porn.

Make it possible for the copyright industry to sue people (“pursue new civil remedies“) with a minimum of hassle.

Abolish the messenger immunity, making Internet Service Providers liable for copyright monopoly infractions happening in their wires, and force them to interfere with the traffic.

All this seems eerily familiar. With one exception, it looks like a checklist followed to the letter by the Swedish Government. The American Embassy confirms that it is, and even explains that exception.

1. (SBU) Summary. Embassy Stockholm recommends that Sweden
continues to be placed in the Special 301 Initiative, and not be on
the Watch List for 2009. We are aware of the differing
recommendations of the International Intellectual Property Alliance
(IIPA) and PhRMA. Post recommendation is based on:
-- The progress made by the Government of Sweden (GOS) in five out
of the six items identified in the Special 301 Initiative Action
plan we communicated to the GOS last year; and

Here, the Embassy (“Post“) writes straight out that the Swedish government has been given a checklist.

-- The sensitive domestic politics that the GOS needs to manage in
order to step up internet piracy enforcement in Sweden. The GOS
struggles, with good intentions, against a very negative media
climate and against a vocal youth movement. For example, we want to
highlight the risk that negative media attention on the file sharing
issue gives the Pirate Party a boost in the EU Parliamentary
elections in June 2009.

Apparently, it is a “vocal youth movement” that fights for basic civil liberties. Also, it is interesting that the Embassy expresses preferences on which parties should be elected by the Swedish people.

2. (SBU) This cable reviews the progress Sweden has made on the
Special 301 Initiative Action plan which we presented to the GOS at
the conclusion of the Special 301 review 2008 (Ref B). Post
continues to engage very constructively with the GOS, and has good
access and a good working relationship with key senior and working
level GOS officials. The actions taken since last year's review
strengthen the legislative framework and provide better enforcement
tools for combating piracy. The Pirate Bay trial is currently being
heard in the district court in Stockholm. The last day of the trial
is March 4, and the verdict can be expected on or about March 25.

The Embassy notes specifically that they have good access to civil servants. In other cables, these are named; among others, the Embassy has contact with Stefan Johansson, the civil servant in the Justice Department who drafted the IPRED legislation giving the copyright industry access to internet subscriber identities.

3. [...] The Justice Ministry, with primary responsibility for this issue, is
fully on board and well aware of what is at stake. It is currently
battling with the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy, and Communication
about the next appropriate steps to curb internet piracy. Now that
the Enforcement Directive implementation will finally enter into
force on April 1, and there will soon be a first District court
decision in the Pirate Bay case -- the Justice Ministry will turn
its attention to other key issues, primarily the ISP liability issue
and extra resources to investigative capabilities. [...]

Here, we see in cleartext that the Justice Department is working to abolish the messenger immunity and make ISPs liable for the traffic in their networks, so that we will have a serious amount of unaccountable extrajudicial censorship. This is one of the most serious threats to the basic civil liberties and to the foundatory principles of the net today. Also, note the expression that the Justice Department are essentially American lapdogs in this area.

4. [...] Post conveyed a Special 301 Action plan to the GOS,
covering six items where the [US Govt] hoped to see progress during 2008.
5. (U) The Special 301 Initiative Action plan 2008 contained
recommendations in six specific areas. The GOS has acted, in
various degrees, in five of those areas. A review of progress in
the six areas follows in paras 6-11:

The Embassy says that it will go through these steps one by one and explain how the Swedish Government has done as asked.

Step-by-step walkthrough of lapdoggery

(At this point, I shuffle the cable paragraphs a bit to match the checklist from the American copyright industry’s organization IIPA, and bring its points in for reference. The numbers before the paragraphs are thus intact from the cable, and show the referenced paragraph. The IIPA checklist is quoted from the top down.)

IIPA checklist says:

1. Adopt “Three Strikes” making it possible to disconnect prople from the internet without a trial (“injunctive relief“), and…

Embassy says:

7. (U) Injunctive relief: The one item without any progress is
Action plan item 2, Injunctive relief. The GOS maintains that there
are adequate provisions currently on the books in Sweden, and does
not intend to introduce new legislation. (Note that industry claims
to the contrary were supported by the recommendations of the Renfors
Commission, a government study commissioned to look into the file
sharing issue. The GOS has declared that it will not further
implement Renfors' recommendations. End note.)

Comments: The Embassy says in cleartext that Three Strikes (“injunctive relief” in legalese) is the only point Sweden hasn’t fulfilled. The referenced Renfors Commission produced the law proposal that explicitly wanted to disconnect people from the net without trial — the infamous Three Strikes. Its secretary, Johan Axhamn, is now lobbying hard within the copyright industry’s lobby organization Netopia to introduce extrajudicial censorship through another one of IIPA’s six points. The Renfors Commission acted very lopsidedly in its directives and execution from the get-go, and now we know why.

IIPA checklist says:

…and implement the IPRED directive in a way that the copyright industry can get internet subscriber identities behind IP addresses.

Embassy says:

8. (U) Implementation of the Enforcement Directive: The bill was
approved by Parliament on February 25, and the new provisions will
enter into force on April 1, 2009. The political sensitivities made
the final handling of the Bill very delicate for the Alliance
government. Much of the debate and negotiations have been done in
public, and there has been tremendous pressure put on individual
MPs. The passage of the implementing legislation is therefore a
much greater victory for the GOS than it might appear. Major
changes, compared to the original proposal, are:
-- the law will not be retroactive. [...]
-- The court will make a proportionality assessment, i. e. weigh the
need of the rights-holder to get access to the personal identity
against integrity aspects of the person behind the IP number. The
law now stipulates that a certain scale of infringement will be
needed for the court to decide that the information should be handed
out. Normally, that would be the case when the infringement
consists of up-loading a single film or musical piece [...]
-- The law includes provisions that the GOS intends to observe and
assess how the law is used [...]

Comments: This was fulfilled to the letter. But we note three things in this cable: First, it is clear that the United States were behind the controversial parts of the IPRED implementation that have become synonymous with the entire law in Swedish language — the parts giving the copyright industry access to subscriber identities behind IP addresses. This part is entirely voluntary in the directive.

Second, we should be careful whenever the government discusses “large-scale file sharing”, because it says here in cleartext what that means: uploading one single movie or music track, something that 250 million Europeans do pretty much on a daily basis.

Third, note the tone of significant disappointment over the law not being made retroactive.

IIPA Checklist says:

2. Prosecute to the fullest extent the owners of The Pirate Bay.

Embassy says:

12. (U) After the raid on Pirate Bay on May 31, 2006, the issue of
internet piracy was fiercely debated in Sweden. Press coverage was
largely, and still is, unfavorable to the positions taken by
rights-holders and the USG [US Govt]. The Pirate Bay raid was portrayed
as the GOS [Govt of SE] caving to USG pressure. The delicate situation made it
difficult, if not counter-productive, for the Embassy to play a
public role on IPR issues. Behind the scenes, the Embassy has
worked well with all stakeholders. After 18 months of
investigation, the prosecutor filed indictments against four
individuals for contribution to copyright infringement because of
their activities administrating the Pirate Bay bit torrent webpage.
The case is currently being heard in the district court in
Stockholm, and the trial is scheduled to be completed on March 4.
The sentence is expected on or about March 25, i.e. before the
conclusion of the Special 301 review process. However, we fully
expect that any outcome will be appealed to a higher court, which
means that the final verdict will not be known for several years.

Comments: At the time of the raid against The Pirate Bay, May 31, 2006, there were clear indications of the Swedish authorities cowing to US pressure. It could only be indicated, not proven in a court of law. Here, it’s in black and white on a checklist handed to the Swedish Government, along with the notes that the Justice Department is “fully on board”.

The Embassy also notes that they have worked behind the scenes with “all stakeholders”, meaning the stakeholders in a negative outcome for The Pirate Bay and Sweden’s competitive IT industry. Some of these are named in other cables, specifically the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the Pirate Bay trial.

IIPA checklist says:

3. Transfer scarce police resources from investigating real crimes and devote them to safeguarding American monopolistic interests against ordinary citizens.

Embassy says:

10. (SBU) Police and prosecutors: There are now two full-time
prosecutors dedicated to IPR/copyright issues. Police officers
have been trained, but we understand that they are not allowed to
devote attention to IPR/copyright issues. They are back in their
regular line of duty in their districts, where there are conflicting
priorities. We have understood that the prosecutors have alerted
that this is a problem for their work - they are "stuck" with a
backlog of old errands and without the support of investigative
officers. The prosecutors ask for investigative officers that are
exclusively devoted to IPR issues, today there are no such
investigative capacities. The Justice Ministry has repeatedly asked
the Head of the Swedish Police for information about how he plans to
come to terms with the investigation deficiencies. Although the [Govt]
recognizes the needs, the budget bill for next year will likely not
contain significant increases for law enforcement, given the harsh
economic conditions. This is an area where post can work with the
[Govt of SE] and [the copyright] industry to highlight the significant
impact additional resources in this area might have.

Comments: Chalk another one up. News just today (September 5, 2011) announced a new national super-unit in the Swedish Police aimed only at people sharing movies, music and porn. News in Swedish here, translated here.

IIPA checklist says:

4. Take large-scale initiatives against people sharing and downloading music, movies and porn.

Embassy says:

11. (SBU) Public education: In the fall of 2008, the GOS released a
new information material, primarily aimed for youth, which will be
broadly distributed in Swedish schools. Justice Minister Ask's
staffers are currently considering the pros and cons of engaging
Cabinet members in the public debate. Given all the negative
attention around the Enforcement directive and the Pirate Bay trial,
the determination thus far has been to keep a low profile. The [Govt]
recognizes that there is a real risk that the window of opportunity
was lost already several years ago -- when leading [politicians]
didn't take the debate. How to engage at this point is a delicate
matter.

Comments: The Justice department embarked on “public education” against sharing, aimed at youth. We criticized this material heavily as it was published (rough translation). The Justice Department sent “educational material” with lopsided copyright monopoly propaganda to high schools and junior highs as education material! This had never happened before, and I criticized the material on point after point for being politically biased, only tell half the story, or be directly and factually wrong. Now, we know that this action was commissioned by the United States.

IIPA checklist says:

5. Make it possible for the copyright industry to sue people (“pursue new civil remedies“) with a minimum of hassle.

Embassy says:

9. (U) Granting police and prosecutors the right to identities
behind IP numbers of individuals potentially implicated in copyright
crimes of lower dignity, i.e. fines rather than prison sentences:
The Justice Ministry has also worked towards the goal of changing
legislation so that police and prosecutors can get access to
information about identities behind IP numbers in cases where the
crime could lead to a fine (rather than a prison sentence). The
usual Swedish term for this type of crime (punishable by fine, not
prison) is "crime of lower dignity." At present, law enforcement
officials are only allowed to get such information if the
infringement could lead to a prison sentence. The [Govt] has agreed to
change the legislation, and it was made part of a study commissioned
to propose the steps needed to implement such a change. The
proposed changes were recently separated out from the rest of the
study, and were reported in advance to Justice Minister Ask late
January 2009. Although the slow legislative process is
disappointing, the GOS has already agreed on the necessary changes
that will strengthen the investigative tools of enforcement
officials.

Comments: The Embassy’s text describes a lengthy process on how this mechanism for the copyright industry was moved from bill to bill. It surfaced again this winter, when Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask announced “step 2″ of traffic data retention, when its usage would expand from just combating organized heavy crime to also include combating petty-fine crimes like (specifically) file sharing. Thus, this cable is not stale by far; the government is still ticking off its checklist.

It is interesting that the Embassy notes that “the Government has agreed to change the legislation”: changing laws is Parliament’s job, not the cabinet’s. At least Parliament has the puzzle piece now that this is American-made mail-order legislation.

IIPA checklist says:

6. Abolish the messenger immunity, making Internet Service Providers liable for copyright monopoly infractions happening in their wires, and force them to interfere with the traffic.

Embassy says:

6. (SBU) Industry consultations/ISP liability: The GOS [SE Govt] held a
series of industry consultations in the summer/fall of 2008, with
the explicit aim to discuss a voluntary industry agreement involving
ISPs and right-holders organizations. Industry contacts reported
that the ISP's were not willing (they claim they are not able) to
take on any action on a voluntary basis. The first round of
consultations was concluded without results during the fall of 2008.
The Justice Ministry is currently working internally in the GOS to
get acceptance for a second round with a clear incentive for
progress, i.e. threatening with legislation in the absence of a
voluntary agreement. There is some resistance in the Center party
led Ministry of Enterprise, Energy, and Communications, and
negotiations are on-going at senior GOS-levels.

Comments: Maybe not a full mission accomplished on the checklist, except a George Bush carrier-style one, but ordering participants to talks under a threat of legislation is at least a very good effort. This is one of the ugliest imaginable way of destroying the Net as we know it. It’s as if the Postal Service would be made responsible for the contents in a letter — for the words on the paper! — or if telecom companies would be held responsible for aiding and abetting crimes planned over the phone. If this were to come, they would only be able to allow certain predetermined, approved and harmless things to be communicated. “Press 1 to say bye.” Otherwise, they would be liable for everything said.

Needless to say, this is the American copyright industry’s dream.

The concept is completely foreign. The only thing helping somewhat against file sharing would be to kill the entire net, and this would be such an action.

The copyright industry’s lobby association Netopia is working intensely to push for exactly this, trying to spin it as “intermediary responsibility”.

Conclusion

So there it is. All in black and white, in excruciating and incriminating detail.

All the attacks on civil liberties and dismantlements of rights in Sweden, rights that have been and should be taken for granted, have been a demand from American trade interests. And these attacks continue to this date.

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About The Author: Rick Falkvinge

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a tech entrepreneur background and loves whisky.

So here’s what I don’t get. The political system, as great as it can be, seems to always end up being citizens fighting to keep the states from taking away their rights. We justify the state because it is “by/for the people” etc, and we justify large corporations because of all the benefits we get (shooo, an iPhone for everyone!). But do we really think we are free because of our state?

Why should I have to pressure “representarives” (who are bought and paid-for) to keep my rights? Is this really freedom? Is this really the best individuals can do?

Enough with the “it’s all voluntary” charade. The state is a mafia, in bed with corporations. If we pressure “representatives” we might get to keep our rights? How is that “freedom”?

What I’m curious about is the “why?” behind al this. Why is the US pushing so actively for the entertainment industry? There are, after all, bigger industries (moneywise) than entertainment. My thoughts are that piracy and sharing hurts the industry that is necessary to promote the “American way of life”, i.e. cultural dominance of the USA. Control of the media equals controlling the public. I tried other explanations, this is the best I can come up with so far…

The reason is simple. The US has transitioned from an industrial economy to a “service economy” and is beginning to take the next steps further. Also, by now the US corporations have destroyed many of the meatspace production sectors in the entire nation by off-shoring massive parts of their production and development capability to China, India and other low-cost countries.

Detroit no longer produces cars. Plastics, paints, etc. come from China. The electronics is “designed in California, made in China”. The list goes on.

What is left? It’s Hollywood, the music industry, medical industry, software, patents, all sorts of intellectual property. There is plenty of that!

The drive is to twist the world into accepting intellectual property as if it were something tangible. The US pushes this hard because it is the only thing they have left. The idea is not to own the methods of production, but to own the instructions for the methods of production, and make others pay for using the instructions.

A problem appears when the rule-setters don’t play by their own rules. Case Håkan Lans is a good example. However, this is an understandable course of action when seen from the previously described perspective. Patent fights with foreign companies and screwing foreign inventors over is necessary as their survival is at stake.

What is intellectual property at its heart? It has no real value – it’s just a pile of contracts. To make the gamble which the USA is doing work, there must be a global unified acceptance of these contracts. This is pushed via ACTA and other treaties. The key is this: if the world is not unified behind accepting these piles of contracts as properly valid, then what happens? The IP-heavy regime, which US focuses on, will simply fail. They can’t keep on making movies for a profit when over half of the planet pays them nothing for it. Once the IP-heavy regime fails, US will not have much more left, and they cannot print more dollars to get out of that mess, the problem is simply too big. Also, they cannot reverse the falling trend by taking back the meatspace production, unless they start now – they cannot do this because of the short-term corporate profit motive prevents such strategic investments. Therefore, once the world-wide rejection grows via the Pirate Party movements and others, a collapse will be imminent.

This is why they fight nail and tooth against all intellectual property violations. It’s a matter of survival for them.

This is why they fight nail and tooth against all intellectual property violations. It’s a matter of survival for them.

This sums it up very well. As Toyota knocked Detroit over, the US knew that it would soon be unable to produce any goods of value. Many tried to find a solution to this problem (for the US, nota bene), and the final solution was spearheaded by the Pfizer CEO: threaten trade sanctions against those who didn’t agree to give the US products in return for getting to rent the drawings of those products.

Of course, this scheme is ridiculously lopsided and insane, but it was never about morality – it was always a trade war, ultimately backed by nuclear weapons.

But the EU is in a position, finally, to break this madness. It is the only economy larger than that of the United States, and therefore the US is unable to apply trade sanctions without being hurt more itself.

Unfortunately, few EU politicians have realized that they are doing themselves a disservice by continuing to support the US instead of letting it fall on its own edged monopolies and let the European Union assume the #1 spot globally, albeit under very heavy competition from the Far East in the coming decades.

Toyota didn’t just “knock over” Detroit. This was a result of a deliberate policy. Here’s Bruce Lehman, architect of the DMCA, talking in the movie RiP: A Remix Manifesto:

“In the Clinton administration my job was being in charge of the intellectual property policy of the United States, both domestically and in terms of our diplomacy. You know in a modern economy I think wealth is in the products of the mind it’s really in intellectual creations. You know, in much of the world we live in a sea of piracy, and you know you can have sympathy for developing countries but we made a deal. You know if you go to a shopping mall in this country you cannot buy anything made in the United States anymore, it all comes from China or some other place like that. Well, the reason for that is that we’ve completely opened up our markets. It was a conscious decision to basically abandon low wage manufacturing jobs, and the idea is that we would compensate for that with higher wage high-tech information more intangible-based jobs.”

Several additional damning points: 1) The film was released not long before Chrysler’s bankruptcy. 2) Finance is a key “post-industrial” industry of the type Lehman is describing. 3) The Clinton administration is culpable, but the decision he talks about was not taken then. The pattern started long before with the ideology of the information society/post-industrial society/knowledge economy/etc. The financial crisis, the hollowing out of industry, and maximalist IP have been implicated in each other at least since the 1970s.

I’d be looking towards Asia for this paradigm shift enforcement actually. The EU (as Anonymous notes below) isn’t just a bigger market than the US – it’s also the one heaviest influenced by US policy.

Whereas India and China by and large have vast internal markets seething with innovation and an (in practice) extremely slovenly IP enforcement policy.

A US company can run Samsung’s surfpad away from select european markets simply because the EU has been obediently signing every IP treaty and agreed to enforce them, according to US rules.

My guess is as soon as the asian markets become globally accessible the US policy breaks for real. The EU may have a bigger market but half of it works against the other half. In comparison the asian markets are a tidal wave of epic deregulation just waiting to hit the western shores.

@Anonymous
The US attempt at becoming a “service industry” has failed in all aspects as well, except for one – they are today the world’s single largest supplier of experts in international IP legislation. Call centers, Tech support, etc have all been moving to India or other low-cost regions in asia since a long time ago.

I.e. the main problem with the US “shift” in attempted market domination is the fact that it relies on the focus on IP to also supply the requirement for the US “service industry”.

This is not a bad plan if it works – providing not only the supply of a service but actually instituting the demand for it as well.
The weak point in the plan is of course that if IP fails (which it will as it shares all the weaknesses of the plan economy without any of the advantages) the entire US market will collapse in a way which makes the 2009 housing/insurance bubble look like a piss in the river nile. With significant percentages of the BNP tied up into IP or based on IP legislation/services the US has managed to back itself into a very bad corner with no good options left.

I’m thinking they’re playing for time, to be honest. The situation is like the US-Afghanistan war – no way to “win” and pulling out isn’t an option.

That’s not a difficult question, Ad, but you have to go back a few years in order to find the cause.

A few decades ago the asian markets started trouncing the west and particularly the US in cost-quality industrial manufacturing all over the board. Electronics, heavy industry, textiles…if it could be manufactured it was done so at far cheaper cost in Asia than in the west.

Meaning that US industry could not remain competitive without a great deal of punitive import taxation.

That leaves mainly existing patents and license portfolios – as the only major “exports” the US and particularly the west has to offer. Today the US is focusing on “Intellectual Property” as the major moneymaker for american companies.

In effect this is a false premise. China is purchasing and churning out patents at rates that ensure they will overtake the west in those areas as well within the span of a decade or two. All the while smiling happily whenever they sign the next international treaty generating more draconian protection for “intellectual Property Rights”. They know full well this will in the end serve them well.

So it isn’t the “entertainment industry” which is being protected by the US specifically, it’s the (current) US portfolio on patents and licenses which is generating the mainstream revenue. The Intellectual Property rights pertaining the entertainment industry is just the top of that iceberg. What’s really being protected is the ability for companies such as Apple to run Samsung out of the market as a supplier of surfpads, Smith Glaxo-Klein’s ability to run third-party manufacturers of expensive medication out of foreign markets…and so on.

Using patents and licenses (or, if you will, abusing said system) makes it possible to remove the cost-quality equation from manufacture by simply ensuring that the lower-cost competitor isn’t allowed to reach the market in the first place.

The most recent exmple is as noted earlier the apple vs. samsung lawsuit which caused Samsung to withdraw their surfpad from the german markets temporarily. Similar to many of the patent conflicts seen for a few years now by Apple, HTC, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Google.

That border has been shifting for some time as desperation has mounted in western governments – as Asia is becoming increasingly savvy in innovation and actual design western industries are responding by trying to make their patents ever more blunt in effect – the actual patent suit re Apple vs Samsung in Germany was about selling a “square plate with a centered screen usable as a communications device”. A suit which in Sweden could not possibly (as of yet) achieve the necessary criteria for generating a valid conflict.

There’s quite a great deal of desperation involved. On the one hand the US government knows full well (or at least should know) that a stronger focus on intellectual property is literally digging their own graves when competing with Asia today (In China and India IP isn’t well respected internally, creating a hotbed of very frantic innovation and competition which eventually emerges onto the global markets and run the socks off western industries crippled in that sector by the need for massive legal teams), but that completely lacks relevance given that western governments make policy based on the next four years of incumbency.

Bluntly put, the US is facing only bad choices. If they cling to IP they will have ten good years and then have to start pressuring every other nation to dismantle IP in order to stand a chance – If they let go they will have to start competing with China and India for real which (for starters) will mean dumping minimum wages and abolishing assorted worker rights in order to get the same competitive edge.

I tried posting a long comment on this but it got eaten by the blog, i guess.

To summarize it, no, it isn’t media control or any such conpiratorial reason.

The US can’t compete in cost-quality manufacture with either Asian industry or innovation and that’s why the focus has been laid on “Intellectual Property” which neatly means you can run a more innovative competitor off the market for trivialities – like Apple suing samsung off the German market for selling a “square metal-reinforced rectangle with a centered screen and rounded corners”.

Not likely…most “intelligence agencies” already have carté blanché as far as surveillance goes. Usually phrased in a way which makes everything they do top secret and in national interests.

The machinery has thus existed for years as far as government intelligence gathering is concerned.

The main problem today is that governments are trying to move the use of said machinery into the legal domain. At least before, if you found yourself under unauthorized surveillance it created a bad image of the government in question. If such surveillance is accepted as the norm then the information gathered could be used above board for any purpose. As in “Scaring the citizenry”.. As in “IP legislation mass extortion”, as in “Maybe this will help us keep IP as a valid job market so we don’t have to compete with China any more?”.

At the end of the day there is no need for conspiracy theories. Occam’s Razor suffices. Consider just how many agencies, authorities and companies in whose vested interest it is to make people stop communicating about one thing or another and you end up with most of the body politic and large parts of the current market all pulling incidentally in the same direction.

I’m sorry for coming in here a little late, but I just discovered this while doing my daily intensive research on issues that are neglected in the mainstream media. I am from the California and I tend to agree with your deduction. I do believe that the U.S. government has been subjecting regions of the world to a form of Americana. China severely restricted “American” media in the form of film and music, and heavily edited books by U.S. authors (such as Hillary Clinton’s “Living History”). Of course the flipside of the restriction is due to China’s interest in controlling what its people think and do.

The alternative to what is perceived as suspect is to reject Hollywood and the American music industry and refuse to purchase their media. Hollywood has had a history of propaganda since, at least, the Great Depression and WWII. For example, the theme of the Hollywood musical. Fred Astaire saves Gingers Rogers, the poor become rich, and Yankee Doodle Dandee, a film intended to influence the audience through the use of propaganda. George Cohan, the composer that the movie was based on, was not born on July 4th– our day of independence from England, but July 3rd. But it was a great effort in which the U.S. government and Hollywood used to motivate the masses during WWII.

Essentially, these industries of music and film have some strange hold over the government of United States. Anti-piracy laws are enforced and investigated by ICE, FBI, CIA and (would you believe it?) Homeland Security. There are additional departments of government, but nevertheless it is strange how the industries of media have woven their way through departments that were not intended to pursue copyright infringement. If your site is shut down, Hollywood is responsible, not the the U.S. governernment.

By rejecting U.S. media, you accomplish two things: you prevent U.S. businesses and U.S. government from running your country as a result of denying them profits, and you promote your culture globally while expanding your influence. Who is to say that “America” produces the best musicians and film makers? Hey, I watch your films with subtitles!

If you are unsure about the influence that the U.S. is imposing on your culture, consider this simple example. Notice how I use quotes when typing the name”America”. The fact is, there is no such country on earth named “America”, only continents. Second, North America, Central America or South America? I live in the United States of America. In effect, United States has stolen that name. The name embodies an ideal, and countries around the globe are subjected to that ideal. It is done so well that you don’t even realize it. You refer to us as “Americans” and not United States citizens, and the things we make are “Made in America”. You do not take it for granted or even assume it because you are not conscious of it. You have been conditioned and it has been engrained in you by no other than “America”, not your governernment (it is just the messenger).

Always suspect and be critical of “American” ideals that are packaged in the form of consumer goods and sent to your country. Always suspect and be critical of what you download. Turn the tables and imagine it is your country that is attempting to influence the United States. Then ask yourself why. More than likely you will find several answers through deductive reasoning, and determine potential motives based on your conclusion.

Welcome to The New World Order. First step was to produce the propaganda. Now, the second step is to control the vehicle through which the propaganda is conveyed. The third step is to abolish all other forms of media contrary to its objective.

Swedes are OUR favorite oppoents FFS. Just advice your politicans to not to visit or join any party with americans in it. Threat USAs embassies as an insult to your goverment, they actually are…
It took way too much effort to do that here, maybe you can do it easier.

Our weak and contemptible politicians and their bureaucrats are an insult to the ordinary people of Sweden. And still we elect those idiotic traitors. Wake up Sweden – we are a sovereign country, are we not?

I know — I assume this is general knowledge from the debate surrounding the FRA law, that it was for the US’ spying network eastward. I have not found this in cables, but there are plenty of material from the time when it happened.

Indeed. And no mainstream media (DN, Aftonbladet etc.) will touch this with a ten foot pole. Nothing will change, the media elite in the trendy penthouses on Söder in Stockholm will continue to live in their bubble. They are probably very self-righteous as they view themselves as the relentless guardians of justice, liberty, democracy etc. against corrupt power holders. Hypocrites. How about some real journalism and challenging power?

Stop paying for lies, stop buying DN and the other mainstream newspapers.

[…] Tuesday 6th September 2011. Jesper at Waffle linked a thorough exposé of U.S.-driven dismantlement of Swedish civil liberties (worth reading) which prompted me to look into the U.S. influence on our own recent developments […]

I think it’d be nice if a condensed version of this could go up on TorrentFreak sometime just to let everyone see without a doubt just how corrupt the system really is. This is the stuff that ‘vocal youth movements’ are made of.

[…] impact innovation around the globe. But as some are noting, this "nutjobby" theory is now actually looking like clear fact, at least in the case of Sweden. This has all come out thanks to the State Department cable dumps, […]

Yes, well, I’m an American citizen and they are doing it all to me too. It is not ‘American Interests’ the US government is protecting, it is international corporation interests that hold sway here. We have a funding system called ‘Super-PAC’ that allows corporations to give entirely unlimited amounts of money to our politicians, and now most of our federal legislation is penned by the corporations themselves.

The US has little business interests to speak of anymore. The businesses that dominate our economy will happily throw the US economy and its citizens under the bus for the any short-term gain, and our politicians happily assist without reservations as they are well paid for their services.

These WikiLeaks revelations are significant, but should hardly be greeted – here in Sweden or elsewhere – with surprise ; it was obvious from the very beginning that in this case, as in others (e g, our «engagement» in Afghanistan), the Swedish government was doing what its masters in Washington were telling them to do. In 1943, after Stalingrad, when it became clear that Germany would lose the war, Sweden switched its allegiance from that state to the emerging hyperpower, the United States, and ever since the Swedish government has always been a most loyal member of the empire. (Admittedly, this may come as a surprise to some, who remember certain very public disputes, but these are best understood as manoeuvres to distract Swedish citizens, who weren’t to know the extent of the cooperation between «their» government and Washington). Now that the banksters and the «copyrights and patent holders» (not to be confused with the innovators) have completely taken over the latter from the industrialists, it is hardly surprising that such matters as enacting new and ever more severe legislation to punish those who violate their interests in preventing copying become the main topic of discussion – along with so-called «humanitarian intervention» by the military (ever the best guarantee of «human rights » !) between US diplomats and Swedish government officials. When it comes to choosing between the interests of ordinary Swedish people (in the cables referred to as «a vocal youth movement») and those of the RIAA and the MPAA, the Swedish government will, of course, do its duty and not hesitate to embrace the latter….

[…] Cable Reveals Extent Of Lapdoggery From Swedish Govt On Copyright Monopoly The Pirate Party was right on every detail. The hunt for ordinary Joes who share music and movies with one another has been behind the largest dismantlement of civil liberties in modern history, and American interests have been behind every part of it. […]

As house of the Nobel prize, knowing the main aim of the institution is to create a series of prizes for those who confer the “greatest benefit on mankind” in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature. It is hard to believe they would act in a way, that would so clearly, mislead mankind. Nevertheless, it would not be the worst they’ve done with such consequences to the day.

I’m from Portugal and I’ve read the most part of all this discussion and the only thing that I can say is that instead of EU works together, pushing EU to be more unite and combating US dominance of the world our EU leaders are as always pushing each one on their own and beeing subservients to the americans just like UK is and always was. Not coincidence for beeing one of most EU ceptic countries. This kind of abuse and disguting politics and arrogance of US as a parallel to whats happening in Greece and unfortunetly on my contry. All this in a reaction to US “crisis” that ended in this finantial attacks lead by rating agencies all in a strategical benefit of once again US and their dollar dominance in opposition to Euro. The only way and response is my belief on a world with freedom, liberties, cuvil rights and balanced with a european culture is a strong and united Europe a true and real United States of Europe. And if we all europeans dont realize that and work together to a comon purpose in our benefit as ALL europeans the US will win and destroy EU and make a hole in each of its countries…

As a US citizen and reader of mostly non-US news, I’m a bit flustered as to how this hasn’t made major headlines. Isn’t revealing the cold recidivism of the Government of Sweden a stirring headline? Shouldn’t the intense manipulation of the US Government be made more aware to the public? The affiliations and scant foreign traffic of this site does not, unfortunately, do justice to the true scale of the story. It should be legitimized and taken clear out of the “tin foil hat” territory. I mean no offense to Mr. Falkvinge; though I do disagree with some of the viewpoints of his party, I simply cannot tolerate such a level of foreign meddling by my own government. Just more incentive for me to leave someday. And this, coming from a student in Biology whose life’s work will be mostly knowledge-based.

Yeah, Notch’s tweet did result in a visible traffic bump. It was worse while topping Reddit, though; preliminary numbers say this article peaked at 22k views per hour. Given the complexity of this blog’s pages, that’s quite a bit.

Gave me a great incentive to track down a few tuning problems with the server and solve them. :)

My God this is horrid. As an American let me apologize for the grasping illegal and bullying nature of my Government. The Obamassiah and his entire administration is nothing but a meat puppet for the large corporate entertainment industry in Hollywood and the financial criminals on Wall Street. Hell, Warren Buffet has his hand so far up Obama’s ass you can smell the shit on his fingers, still, that is no excuse to bully a friend and ally – DO NOT GIVE IN! RESIST! Obama and Hollywood MUST BE STOPPED! If we can’t find the balls to do it, then I hope Europe, and Sweden, can.

This entire situation of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and its subsidiaries overseas quite obviously pulling the strings of the US government, and they in turn doing the same to other governments, is just so very disheartening.

Sweden was (and still remains compared to some) such a bastion of internet freedom…

The one thing about your analysis that I found so depressing was the undercurrent of manipulation and obfuscation being employed by members of your own government. I’ve come to expect (though I find it repugnant) such behavior from our State Department when dealing with other governments, but just kind of lost heart when I saw it coming from your government, directed at your own people.

I was left wondering why? What were they imagining they were getting in return – a better economy (an assumption that while probably misguided is at least looking out for your best interests), or is it what we all fear about our elected officials, were they simply offered money or lucrative jobs?

What could they believe justifies their assaults on individual privacy and due-process? How do they justify – especially retroactively (though they didn’t manage to get that bit through, thank God) – the criminalization of a huge percentage of their own population, in the name of protecting a faceless group of rich foreigners – or if not criminalization, then the potential (likely) mass levying of huge fines on individuals (probably mostly young) who have actually not hurt anyone, but are merely engaged in sharing our common culture in film and TV?

This whole thing saddens me no end. What are we to do when our governments act, not for us any longer, but for other powers behind the scenes, all the while hiding their true intentions from the people they are charged with representing?

Yeah… But it’s hard to “prove” that any decision past by the Swedish parlament (or indeed its courts) was a direct result of a recommendation from the US Embassy. I mean, what if the interests simply coinsided? I am convinced that many of the MPs voted according to their own conviction, which happened to be the same conviction as that of the USG…

But that’s lobbying for ya! You never know why you believe something, but the more lobbying there is for a certain belief, the more people will believe it. Even though they might all claim they do it for their own, private reasons!

But is that a crime? To lobby, or to fall for it? No it’s not. Only if you can prove that the embassy or the USG actually offered any sort of compensation (bribe) or made any threat for the GOS to agree, is it a crime.

And yes, I agree that it is most appauling to see the US Embassy make recommendations about Swedish police priorities and court outcomes!! But then we know that’s how they are. Cocky, selfish and respectless. But what we need to get at is our own (Swedish) government. And how?

[…] in order to initiate a big crack-down on The Pirate Bay. Wikileaks #cablegate cables later showed how Sweden consistently bows to demands from the USA. That piece was written by Pirate Party founder Rick […]

I am a citizen of the United States. I just spent the last 2 hours reading this article and comments – which I’ve heard mostly about previously. It is a game of corruption. I can not really blame the politicians, everybody has their price. HollyWood’s pockets are so deep, they couldn’t even dream of reaching the bottom. I hate Hollywood with a passion for all of the corruption and scandals they have caused. I encourage everybody to stop purchasing American-made media. Make them fail. Make them lose their profitability. TPB hasn’t stopped working yet – get your media there. And when I say HollyWood, I mean the majority of the American media companies, movies and music.

They might have ordered coffee and donuts from the Swedish prime minister after the checklist, plus asked him a little shining in their boots, PROBABLY.

PEOPLE HERE´S YOUR CHECKLIST:
– buy some dog leashes and paint them with the colors of the American flag;
– go to central government in Stockholm;
– throw the leashes at the entrance or through the windows, addressing them to the PM or the king, whatever.

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Well I really like reading about movies when this or that movie will be released then about actors which is for me most important thing when it comes to movies. But what about movie site where you can watch latest HD movies and all that ad free and with no payment just click and play. Well this is the site for you awesomemovieshd.blogspot.com. Many of you will be sceptic about it but once you go movies you will never go�Anyway feel free to stop by anytime hehe :)))

About The Author

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a tech entrepreneur background and loves whisky.